Plastic has taken the place of other materials in a variety of industries. Plastic has replaced glass to minimize breakage, reduce weight, and reduce energy consumed in manufacturing and transport. In other industries, plastic has replaced metal to minimize corrosion, reduce weight, and provide color-in-bulk products.
A variety of additives, functional and decorative, can be added to plastic compositions by the addition of a masterbatch prior to final shaping of the plastic compounds into plastic articles. Typically, the masterbatch is added to polymer base resin and optionally other ingredients at the entry point for an extrusion or molding machine. Thorough melt-mixing of the masterbatch with and into the resin allows for consistent dispersion of the concentrated additives in the masterbatch into polymer resin for consistent performance properties of the polymer compound in the final plastic article.
Plastic compounds can use either a thermoplastic polymer such as a polyethylene (PE), polyamide (PA), or polyester (PET) or a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) such as a styrenic bulk copolymer (SBC) or olefin block copolymer (OBC).